Details
HARDING, WARREN G., President. Autograph letter signed ("Warren G. Harding") as President, to Robert Coster, Washington, D.C., 13 December 1921. 1 page, 4to, integral blank, White House stationery, with original White House envelope. RARE.
"MODERN METHODS HAVE LEFT ME A POOR PENMAN"
President Harding obliges an autograph collector: "I can appraise your desire for an autograph letter and am happy to meet your wishes, though I cannot meet your expectations in having me write on some problem pending solution. That would be too much like the too frequent request to pose for a motion picture. It is a fine thing to have motion pictures to record current events, but is not seemly to pose to meet the whims, artistic or educational, of the camera men. There is over-much posing anyway. Modern methods have left me a poor penman, but I can write clearly enough to utter the compliments of the season and append my cordial good wishes..."
The rarity of Harding's ALSs as President is documentable; from 1970 to the present, American Book Prices Current records only two other examples (the last sold here at Christie's, New York, 9 June 1993, lot 181, $9000).
"MODERN METHODS HAVE LEFT ME A POOR PENMAN"
President Harding obliges an autograph collector: "I can appraise your desire for an autograph letter and am happy to meet your wishes, though I cannot meet your expectations in having me write on some problem pending solution. That would be too much like the too frequent request to pose for a motion picture. It is a fine thing to have motion pictures to record current events, but is not seemly to pose to meet the whims, artistic or educational, of the camera men. There is over-much posing anyway. Modern methods have left me a poor penman, but I can write clearly enough to utter the compliments of the season and append my cordial good wishes..."
The rarity of Harding's ALSs as President is documentable; from 1970 to the present, American Book Prices Current records only two other examples (the last sold here at Christie's, New York, 9 June 1993, lot 181, $9000).